Where do we go from here?

In order to get through this heartbreak, we are going to have to focus what little energy we have left on being with Denis and what lies ahead. Denis, the great kid that he is, is completely oblivious to our negative emotional state. We are fine with this, as he has never wavered from his decision to go with us (which he gladly made on the first day), even without Snezhana. We know he will eventually come to understand the consquences of her poor choice, but for now he is as happy as a clam that he is coming home with us!



So, after we got the kids answers we were able to stay with Denis until he went to lunch. They stuck us in the social worker's cramped office again and we'd forgotten to bring the board games, so we had little to do, but sit and look at each other! Fortunately Denis is very easy going and doesn't complain - he was just so happy to be with us and he can entertain himself and Papa with a rubix cube for hours!



"S" worked on the necessary paperwork and ran back and forth to the notary and the inspector's office. We all left about 12:30 and saying goodbye to Denis was very hard for everyone. We've never seen him cry so hard. Poor guy could not understand why we had to leave and we had to tell him we would be back, but we didn't know for sure when. He probably thought he would be leaving with us tonight. "S" translated and 2 care givers tried to console him, but he wouldn't let go of Brian. Finally Snezhana arrived and we explained to her why we had to leave and that we would be back as soon as we could. Eventually, we told the care givers they just needed to take him away because we had to leave to get paperwork done so it could get on the train tonight.



We went to the notary again and the inspector's office and then got some lunch while we waited for the director of the orphanage to sign the necessary paperwork. We returned to her office at about 3:30pm and she signed within a few minutes, but she could see we were distressed. She told us not to worry and that everything would be ok, but then she called us into her office to talk some more. She said that it is a hard decision for children Snezhana's age and recommended that we host her again this summer and maybe she would change her mind and want to come. She said we were nice people and she wanted to see Snezhana go with us, but that she had to make her own decision. We tried to explain not only the high cost of hosting, but a return trip for adoption would cost us nearly $30,000 and we'd be leaving at least 4, possibly up to 6 children back in the states in order to come get her a 2nd time. We said we would consider hosting, but could not make any promises.



"S" drove us to the train station, but they didn't have any open compartments for tonight or tomorrow. Rather than wait here another two days, we decided to see if there was a flight out in the morning. We'll have to get up at 5am to make the 7am flight, but we should be in Kiev by 9am, which is just as good as taking the train. Costs more, but I should hopefully be able to get some sleep in the apartment tonight vs the all night train ride on which I KNOW I won't get ANY sleep at all.


"N" will submit the papers to the SDA tomorrow and hopefully get us an appointment on Monday. If she can pull any strings we might be able to get our referral for V & Y on Monday before 5pm and maybe get the train out Monday night. Most likely though, we'll be getting the Tuesday night train.

Honestly, from there we don't know what to expect. The separation paperwork for S & D will be started tomorrow, and could take up to a week before the committee meets to vote on it. Of course, given our track record, something new will come up to change everything we've been told, but we can hope for the best. While we wait for this to happen, we can go to Severdonesk (provided we get the referral from the SDA) and visit V & Y. Based upon what happened at Lutugino with kids we already knew, we expect V & Y to take much longer to make their decisions. We are prepared to give them as much time as they need, up to the 10 days before our referral would run out for them. By then, the separation papers for S & D should be done and we can apply for a court date.

Currently we still plan to leave the country on Dec 30th as originally planned, but if something else goes badly, we could be home much sooner. We'll keep the blog updated when we know anything else. We appreciate your continued prayers - we need to be strong for each other, for Denis and when our kids back home hear, they won't be happy either.

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